Upcoming Special Guest Tipster: Boris Johnson

Quite a terrible couple of days for the Australian jockey ranks:

Leah Kilner suffered a terrible fall when Stella’s Turn broke it’s leg 75 metres shy of the winning post in Race 3 at Grafton, resulting in the card being abandoned as she was taken to hospital in Brisbane in an induced coma, along with having sustained fractured ribs and a broken clavicle, but was cleared of any spinal injuries and continues to recover.

Then on Monday, apprentice Elissa Meredith suffered head injuries in a fall during Race 5 at Gunnedah, and was taken to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle in a stable condition…

And Juana Andreou was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition with serious head injuries on Monday morning, after she was kicked in the head by the horse she was clipping during Flemington trackwork, and has already undergone two surgeries to stop the bleeding and release pressure on the brain, and remains in an induced coma as of Friday morning.

Once again, it highlights just how dangerous race riding is… one of, if not the most dangerous profession in the universe.

And in unrelated news, South Australia are going ahead with their plan to end jumps racing, which would be the third-most devastating thing South Australia has lost, behind RM Williams and the Australian Grand Prix, and would leave Victoria as the only state in Australia to have jumps racing, ironically after the Vics banned the jumps in 2009 due to horse fatalities, only to bring it back in 2010.

So on that cheerful note, it’s over to Crazy Colin, who will have to dig us through a weekend in which Artorius runs in the July Cup at Newmarket on Saturday night, with the local action coming from the Pam O’Neill Stakes + Chief De Beers meeting at Doomben, the Sir John Monash at Caulfield, and the Winter Stakes at Randwick, run on a Heavy 50 after the Sydney rain…

So take it away, Billy Thorpe!

Pick of the Day: Oxley Road (No.4, Barrier 5) in Race 8 at Caulfield (MR8), 4:10pm AEST

1100m Group 3 WFA Sir John Monash Stakes

Trainer: Peter Moody, Jockey: Luke Nolen, 58.5kg

Hello everyone it’s Crazy Colin Esquire, back for another week against my will because CRAIG KEEPS STEALING THINGS FROM MY BLOODY GARDEN, instead of sending through his tips!

Once again, he’s an out and out bastard, in fact, I think he said he’d put $1500 on the bloody LIONS to win the flag at $8…

At least that’s what I think he said, he was half-pissed!

So as I recover from yet another attack on my personal property, we’ve got to find a winner, which I failed to do last week to my great shame, so we’re going off to that dump track called Caulfield, where I think we might be able to get the winner of the feature John Monash Stakes…

Oxley Road!

In fact, we may as well call this the Street Directory Stakes, because there’s another horse called Ashford Street, so I wonder if they intersect, or if it’s just a dead end.

Regardless, Oxley Road is the class runner of the race in what is a WFA race, having put in some huge runs in Group 1 company, including a 3rd placing in the Oakleigh Plate in his last visit to Caulfield…

Which was followed by running stone motherless in the Newmarket Handicap, but that doesn’t matter now, because what matters is that Oxley Road is 1st Up, and he is a FRESH HORSE, having 3 1st Up runs for a win and two 2nd placings!

Peter Moody seems to have him in good order, having run pretty well in a recent trial that we have no record of, and if Luke Nolen can give the 4-year-old chestnut a good run, then he’ll be right up the pointy end in the finish against the mare Mileva….

WHO ISN’T GOING TO KNOW WHAT HIT HER.

So there we go, Oxley Road is my PICK OF THE DAY.

Random Jimi Hendrix Pick: Snippy Fox (No.9, Barrier 6) in Race 7 at Randwick (SR7), 2:35pm AEST

1200m Bowerman’s Benchmark 88 Handicap

Trainer: Joe Pride, Jockey: Jay Ford, 55kg

Snippy Foxey Lady… Heavy track record 4 starts for 3 wins and a 2nd!

So that’s all from me, and as always friends, stay safe, look after each other…. and don’t steal your neighbour’s tomatoes!

One final note from Colin: “I noticed there’s a horse called Vaccine running in Race 4 at Doomben….”

“Are her stablemates called No Jab, First Jab, Second Jab, Third Jab, with the recent addition of Fourth Jab?”